Initiative Launched to Transform Lasnamäe’s Image
The NPO Linnalabor (Urban Lab) has launched the initiative Lasnaidee (Lasnamäe Idea) with a video, aiming to mobilize community awareness and activism in the Lasnamäe district of the capital.
In an attempt to dispel the image of Lasnamäe as a grim Tallinn suburb full of dull apartment blocks, the video shows interviews with bright-eyed locals listing the best qualities of their neighborhood, ETV reported on Friday.
The video has had more than 7,400 hits by Monday and the initiators believe that it is possible to start a community movement in the area of more than 118,000 residents.
One of the initiators, Maria Derlõš from Linnalabor, told ETV that the project aims to prove the existence of a community spirit in Lasnamäe and said the locals already wish to make things happen without waiting for the government to take an interest.
A website will be up in the future, but further steps will also depend on suggestions by Lasnamäe residents themselves.
Although the initiative is not political, it shows Estonia as a good living environment, echoing the ideas expressed in a recent statement by local Russian speakers.
Another, although slightly more isolated attempt to engage Lasnamäe - which is usually off the beaten track of urban projects - occured in 2011, A temporary installation, part of the urban installations festival LIFT11, was erected there.
The Lasnaidee video, in Estonian and Russian only, can be watched here.